The Alpha’s Contract



Chapter 0441

"You thought we would just allow a complete stranger into our home?" Dane asks

"You are both Alpha's. I hoped... I hoped one of you would understand."

"He used the word bloodbath. Told us that you would get out and slaughter everyone."

She locks her fingers together, twisting them around as she struggles to find an answer. Her words are barely audible as she mutters that Cooper told her she was dangerous.

"Did you kill someone at the prison?"

She bobs her head. "I had too."

"You had too?" Neah presses

"Yes. I..." She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. "It wasn't what I told Blair. It was a nurse, that was true. He used to come in at night." Her lip curls up and her eyes harden." Touch me when he thought I was sleeping. I saved a fork, when he snuck in my room again, I waited for the perfect moment and stabbed him in the throat."

Her eyes flicker up to me. "I pulled it out and made sure he never left the room as he choked on his own blood."

It was a little surprising she wasn't a Rogue.

"Iran. Coop found me. He didn't make me go back though. I was too much of a risk" She lowers her gaze and blinks a few times. "He made me like this, didn't he? Coop made it so my mind is not my own."

"Yes." Neah mutters. "It's what abusers do, especially when they have been doing it for a long time." She turns around to look at Dane and disappears up the steps. Dane follows her, leaving me alone with Samara.

"Why do they keep saying that?" Samara asks quietly.

"Because it's true and if anyone can confirm it, Neah can. Cooper has used you. He has you doing his work for him and he does that with the promise of keeping you safe and protected. Only he hasn't kept you safe at all."

"He talks to me. I hear him. It's because I'm no longer stripped. Obviously I have my abilities back, I wouldn't have just turned into that... Lycan. And the Alpha wouldn't have been able to hear me."

"What does Cooper say when he speaks to you?"

"That he will get me out. That he is working on it." She pulls her shoulders up around her

ears. "Something about a mate. Sometimes he sounds angry. He blames me for something."

"For what?"

"I don't know. His voice can be loud, sometimes it is barely a whisper. Other times it isn't even there."

"Have you always heard him?"

She shakes her head at me. "Only when he wanted me too."

I move towards the steps

"Don't go. I don't like being alone down here."

"You were alone on the farm."

"It was different. I had freedom. You don't have to talk to me. I can just sit quietly."

I sit on the wooden stool, folding my arms across my chest and she lowers her eyes. "How do you expect us to believe anything you say?"

Her forehead creases as she frowns. "I don't expect you to. I tried to play a game. I tried to trick my own brother. If someone here doesn't kill me, he probably will."

Samara lets out another whimper. "It's happening again."

Frantically, she pulls her clothes off as she screams. Trying to curl herself up into a ball but the cracking bones won't allow it. I watch her roll onto her stomach and push herself up onto her hands and knees. The screams are hard to listen to and I have watched the living be ripped apart by Rogues.

The screams mix with roars of pain as her body contorts itself in ways it hadn't done last time. I couldn't stand to listen to it any more.

"Hey, listen to mel"

As her body continues to jerk about, her eyes find mine.

"Stop fighting it."

"I can't." She cries through a scream. "It's not me."

"Samara, it is you. It is your Lycan, no one else's, you have the control. Let it out or shut it down!"

Tufts of black fur begin to appear along her legs as they lengthen and widen. She throws herself back against the wall, her claws scraping along the ground. "STOP STOP STOP. You can't do this to me!"

She lets out a final whimper and stills.

The tufts of fur disappear and her legs begin to shrink. She slides over until she is laid on her side and draws her knees up to her chest, crying and hyperventilating.

"There's a blanket right behind you."

Without looking, she reaches behind her, fumbling for the small piece of fabric and drags it over her naked frame. A few more of her bones slot back into their rightful place but this time, she only cries.

"Were you talking to him? Was that who you were telling to stop making you shift?"

She pushes the blanket down just enough for me to see her eyes. "No."

"You were telling yourself?

"No, I was telling the voice in my head."